Bronson Movie Review

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Bronson Movie Review (Released 2008)

IMDB: 7.1

Starring: Tom Hardy, Kelly Adams

Rated: R (V, L, GN, S)

Genre: Action / Biography / Crime

Running Time: 1hr 32min

What is now considered this generations Clockwork Orange? What movie that I know positive is to be Tom Hardy’s biggest and greatest role? When you hear Tom Hardy, you think Bane from the Dark Knight Raises. Bane can read and weep because its Tom’s Hardy’s role as Charles Bronson in the movie Bronson. Its not just Tom Hardy’s stellar acting, he may as well have become Charles Bronson himself, that makes this movie one to remember. The infamous director Nicolas Winding Refn gives this movie its own character. People say that Bronson is the movie that helped inspire his most famous film Drive.

This movie has made it on my favorites list of independent films. Based on a true story, this is how it goes: Bronson gets sent to prison for seven years for a armed robbery. His mother calls from the courtroom “You’ll be out in three.” He serves 34 years (as of 2009), 30 of which are spent in solitary confinement, and is still serving his life sentence to this day. How does he manage this? He has the habit of taking hostages in the prison, stripping naked and covering himself with grease just so he can brawl with prison guards and he enjoys doing it.

Plot wise, there is no plot. This movie is the storytelling of a real man who really did these things.

As I watched the movie I can’t help but be absorbed in Charles Bronson character and personality. The audience gains sympathetic connection with this mad man as they watch him being copped up in a tiny cell, being rejected by the woman he loves, and having his art be ignored. We start to understand why he fights. Its like if you ever wanted to punch someone in the face for cutting in line but don’t? Well Bronson would pummel said person before drawing a smiley face on their forehead and holding out peace signs at police. Then he would fight the cops as they were trying to force in into handcuffs or sedate him. This movie unintentionally makes you think about the function of our prison systems and of their methods of dealing with prisoners. After-all, Charles Bronson is facing a life sentence but has never killed anyone. Bronson in this film actually says that he enjoyed prison and compares it to a hotel room that helps him “hone” his skills as a fighter. What? Prisons actually encouraging violent behavior? Why I’d Never!

Please don’t let your 12 year old son see this movie. Its rated R and when I say rated R I actually mean you get to see Tom Hardy’s manly uncensored package about every 10 minutes. As an artist this movies nudity pleases me because for once in hollywood’s life, nudity didn’t equal sexual targeting to the audience. It shows man is his barest form (literally) and delivers the perfect idea of what a human really is: flawed with strong emotion and surrounded by a system that holds them back. This is a movie that everyone should see.